#beaucaire

[philoursmars]

Une petite série sur les pigeonniers.

Ici, en Provence

Grignan (en Drôme Provençale)

Plateau de Valensole

Marseille, crèche de l'église de la Major

Saint-Savournin, avec Isabelle

Beaucaire, Mas des Tourelles

Marseille, crèche de l'église des Réformés

[neoluca]

i've got some new little guys

[racout]

The Drac of Beaucaire

Note: I'm an English learner and I wrote this text to practise my written English. If you want to give me feedback about my English, please go ahead!

In my publication about the tarasque I mentioned another creature called the drac.

The drac exists in several French tales and legends, especially in Occitania and western Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is most often an incarnation of the Devil, which takes the form of all sorts of creatures, objects, and people. But it seems unable to become a needle as it doesn’t know how to pierce its head to make the eye of a needle.

There are plenty of dracs in France, and the one I want to talk about lives in the Rhône, near the town of Beaucaire. It is said that the it lives in a palace deep in the river. With golden objects, it attracts people to the river and takes them. It especially targets breastfeeding women so they can feed its own children.

Gervase of Tilbury was the first one to write about the creature in his encyclopaedia Recreation for an Emperor (Otia imperialia), in the early 13th century. He portrays a dragon living in the Rhône.

There are different versions of this story. One of my favourites was told by Paul Sébillot in Le Folklore de la France : La mer et les eaux douces (The Folklore of France: Sea and freshwaters). Here is a synopsis:

A woman from Beaucaire was cleaning her laundry in the Rhône when she noticed a wooden bowl floating on water. She was intrigued and tried to grab it, but it moved away. She wanted to get closer, but the more she tried to approach it, the further it was. When she reached a deep area of the river, the drac caught her and took her into the depths.

It brought her to its place and tasked her to feed its child. She was its prisoner for years.

One day, she was given a cake with snake flesh. While eating it, she touched her eye with her greasy hands. At that moment, she noticed that she could see distinctly under water.

The drac finally let her go seven years after snatching her. She went back to Beaucaire and explained to startled inhabitants what had happened to her. She told them the drac fed on human flesh, and, sometimes, it took human form to hide among them.

One day, she met another drac. It had taken human form, but she recognised it with her power. The drac knew how she saw him, and touched her eye to remove her ability.

The drac of Beaucaire is just one of the many legends and tales about this creature. There is a story where it becomes a ball of string to trick a woman. In another tale, it is a mare or a donkey, of which body grows longer as more people mount it. Or a story where it is the master of the ocean.

Sources below

PERBOSC Antonin. Mythologie populaire : le Drac, l'Étouffe-vieille et le Matagot d’après les traditions occitanes. Revue de Folklore français et de folklore colonial, 1941, t. XII, n°1, p. 1-18.

URL (PDF)

SÉBILLOT Paul. Chapitre IV : les rivières, Partie 2 : Habitants et hantises des rivières. In: Le Folklore de la France. La mer et les eaux douces. Paris, France: E. Guilmoto, 1905, p. 339-361.

URL (Gallica)

DELMAS Marie-Charlotte. Drac. In: Dictionnaire de la France Merveilleuse. Paris, France: Omnibus, 2017, p. 186-191.

BLADÉ Jean-François. Le drac. In: Contes de la Gascogne. Paris, France: Calmann Lévy, 1895, p 193-207.

[biologyfiction]

[illustratus]

The Supper at Beaucaire, 28 July 1793. | Le souper de Beaucaire, 28 juillet 1793.

by Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ

[ratelet-james]

James Ratelet, sur les chemins du Gard, Arènes de Nîmes, Maison Carrée, Tour Magne et Temple de Diane, jardins de la Fontaine, Porte d'AugusteCostières, terroir viticole et activités autour de l'AOC Costières-de-nîmes, Mas des Tourelles, Beaucaire,Abbaye de Saint-Roman, Voie Régordane, Abbaye de Saint-Gilles, Petite Camargue, Scamandre, Gallician, Saint-Laurent-d'Aigouze, Aigues-Mortes, Salins du Midi, à Aigues-Mortes, Pointe de l'Espiguette, le pont du Gard, Uzès, Avignon, Occitanie , France, Europe

[witcheringways]

Lower Gardens near Beauclair Palace { The Witcher 3, Next Gen }

[thunderstruck9]

Paul Signac (French, 1863-1935), Beaucaire, 1933. Pencil and gouache on paper, 28.5 x 43.5 cm.